Creatures Caves

As a computer technician I can assure you that deleting everything has never been a successful way to clean up a computer as you still need to put all the essentials back on again afterwards and that will recreate the problem.

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To speed up a slow machine there is only one real treatment:

0. Go into System Restore in the Windows Start Menu and create a backup.

1. Delete the contents of your Windows' Temp folders:

C:\Windows\TEMP\

C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings\Temp\

2. Clear the cache within your web browser:

For IE pre version 7 select Tools, Internet Options, and click on delete Files under Temporary Internet Files.

For IE 7 select Tools, Internet Options, and click on Delete for the Browsing History section.

3. Run the Spybot (download) spyware removal tool.

4. Run the Ad-aware (download) spyware removal tool.

5. Run a System Scan in HijackThis (download) and save the log.

5b. Then copy the log into http://hjt.networktechs.com/ and, if you see anything that needs removing (by looking at the colour key and hovering the mouse over each line for more information), run HijackThis again and fix the problems by selecting the relevant check boxes and click on the Fix Selected button.

6. Check which Virus Scanner and Firewall you are using. Norton and ZoneAlarm can cause problems and slow down the machine; whereas the fastest solution is to install the McAfee Virus Scanner (only, no other products from the McAfee CD so you do need to click Custom at every chance when installing the disk) - McAfee 2007 OEM £5 - and the freeware Sygate (download) as your Firewall.

7. Then its best to finish off by running some quick scans:

7a. Run your virus scanner
7b. Once that has finished open My Computer, right click on your hard drive and select Properties, within the tools tab click on Check Now for Error Checking and allow the PC to reboot
7c. Go back to the tools tab list and select Defrag Now under De fragmentation (preferably with your screen saver off) and don't do anything on the computer until that has complete.

Any straggling problems are then quite easy to fix.

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If you are going ahead with deleting everything then do copy your game's folder to disk or upload the files before you start. You can get free storage space at www.mediamax.com/